To prepare the Sanhedrists, those “servants of Mammon (wealth)”, and “lovers of money” who had rejected Him, He described a certain rich man who had both wealth and position, a condition that the Sanhedrists would have attributed to the blessing of God. The Rabbis taught that wealth was a sign of the favour of God (‘whoever the Lord loves He makes rich’). In contrast with the ease and comfort of the rich man, Jesus described the desperate position and condition of a beggar named Lazarus, who must have been daily visible to the wealthy Jew. Lazarus’ hopes were not great, just that he might have some crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. In course of time, both men died and went to Hades/Sheol.
This place of the dead had two main compartments, the first part, sometimes called ‘Abraham’s bosom’, was reserved for those that died with a true faith in God. This part, in many ways, mirrored heaven. Since animal sacrifice only covered sin, but did not remove it, those that died in faith before the death of the Messiah on the cross, would not go to hell but could not get into heaven, hence the place called Abraham’s bosom. The second part of Hades/Sheol was a place for those who had either rebelled against God or failed to respond to the light He offered.
There are three subdivisions of the second part of Hades/Sheol. They are subdivisions of ‘hell’. The first subdivision is the ‘abyss’; the second subdivision is ‘Tartarus’; the third subdivision is ‘Gehenna’.
(1) The abyss or bottomless pit is a temporary place of confinement for fallen angels (God will imprison Satan there for a thousand years). The demons in the Gadarene Legion “begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss” (Luke 8:31).
(2) Tartarus is a more permanent place of confinement for fallen angels. “God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell (Tartarus) and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment” (2 Pet.2:4). (From here, they go directly to the lake of fire).
(3) Gehenna is the place of torment for the wicked. Jesus speaks of it as the destiny of those who rejected Him as Messiah. “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell (Gehenna)?" (Matt.23:33)
Since they are three subdivisions of Hell, they obviously have many things in common.
Lazarus, whose name means ‘God helps’, went to Abraham’s bosom, whereas, contrary to all the teaching of the Pharisees, the rich man went to Hell. The Pharisees taught that all Jews would go to Abraham’s bosom, (“all Israelites have a share in the world to come”) (Mishnah: San.10:1) but the Messiah related to them the experience of a Jew (he addresses Abraham as ‘Father’, and Abraham responds with ‘Son’), who is in Hell.
The narrative clearly implied deity because Jesus had knowledge of a conversation between two actual Jews in Hades, after death. He described the torment of the Jewish rich man and the comfort of the beggar named Lazarus. As with Jonah they can speak, remember and pray. The rich man asked Abraham to send Lazarus to him with some water to relieve his torment, but Abraham tells him of the gulf between them that is impassable. Unable to obtain any measure of respite, he asked that Lazarus might be despatched from Hades on a mission to his brothers, to persuade them to repent. The wealthy Jew was asking that his family might be given the sign of the prophet Jonah! “I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment” (Luke 16.:27,28). The tormented Jew was unwittingly asking for a Jonah to go to his brothers as Jonah had been sent from Sheol to Nineveh. But his brothers had already had that opportunity because a greater than Jonah had preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt.4:17). Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them”. Whereupon the rich man said, “No, father Abraham: but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent” (Luke 16:30). He asserted the Bible was not enough – they needed signs and wonders. Abraham responded, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31). If they will not believe and obey the Scriptures, then signs and wonders will make no difference! This was another public warning to the Pharisees.
Next Time: The Raising of a man called Lazarus
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